


Down By The River's Bend

by orphan_account



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: 1998, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-09 11:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10411179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tyler wants to know how love works, and Josh just wants to go to the moon.





	1. Entry One

**Author's Note:**

> Just something I found in my drafts and figured I'd give it a go :)
> 
> Also, the chapters are meant to be short.

_August 7th 1997_

_Danny Munello wraps his car around the oak tree where Blackwood and Foundry meets. Kurt gave me money to buy a new almanac._

 

 

* * *

 

The end of February came in a series of warm days, and Josh had spent each of them outside staring at the last entry in the journal his step-father gave him. He had kept it on the bookshelf his step-father Kurt made him, behind 1985's edition of the World Almanac. Josh made sure he bought one yearly, and kept them on the shelf he recently covered in a stone gray toned wood stain. Hiding the journal was the best thing he'd done in a while, considering his neighbor Morgan always tried to read it when Josh wasn't near him. 

Morgan Callahan was the only junior on Kingway Drive, and the only junior to maintain Joshua Dun's attention for more than five seconds. 

Josh spent most of his spare time either watching the moon landing with an almanac in his lap, or sitting under the oak tree the town named after Munello, watching Morgan kick a ball around with his older brother, Reed.

While Josh lounges on Kurt's favorite beat up couch, Morgan lays his head on Josh's lap. He huffs quietly, annoyed that all his neighbor does is watch Armstrong hop around the moon. Josh did nothing but mindlessly run his fingers through Morgan's short and curly hair. 

"There's a solar eclipse in two days, and a lunar in March," Josh mumbles. "We should swing by Danny's tree... You can bring Reed, and we can count the stars like we always do?"

 "Reed can stay home, I'm sure he'll be fine."  _I just want us to be alone._


	2. Entry Two

_July 29th, 1977_

_Morgan asked my sister to cut his hair, and dye it dark brown. He says it's because it looks like Reed's._

* * *

 

 It's been six years since Tyler's parents decided that they didn't love each other any longer, and how they used to. With the house they've built the rest of their lives in up for foreclosure, they decided they wouldn't let themselves, or their four children suffer. 

With his head leaned on his mother's truck's window, Tyler counts the number of raindrops that fall in front of his face.  _He thought that summer was supposed to arrive early._

His mother taps her thumbs on the steering wheel to the sound of the radio, glancing at her son every few minutes. "You sided with me..." She says slowly, as more of a question than a statement.

Tyler blinks. And he turns to face forward in his seat. "The others hate you... F-for leaving Dad, I mean."

 The truck stops at a red light, and Tyler moves back into his first position, drawing shapes into the window. "I don't want you to hate yourself for doing what makes you happy, just because the boys, and Madison don't understand."

He feels the car start moving again, his mother's thumbs continue tapping on the steering wheel. "I wouldn't hate myself."  _I'd be happy that they are free from the evils in their lives._

 

 

 


	3. Entry Three

_July 27th, 1997_

 

 _After spending a week at the Callahan's summer cabin, I come home to see Mom's things gone again. Kurt says it's another one of those trips with the ladies from_ _church._

_Kurt's a liar._

* * *

 

Tyler stares at his dirty, black sneakers, trying not to draw attention to him as a little bell sound fills the convenience store when he opens the door. His mother asked him to get floor cleaner, and more coffee grounds while she was straightening their new apartment up. It was a one bedroom loft apartment on the sixth floor of the complex. 

The top of the shelves were covered in dust, and the tile floor was dirty- Tyler took note of all of the store's flaws and dubbed them as quirks. It was right next door to the complex, so he might as well get used to these quirks while he's there. 

He bent down grabbing the cheapest bottle of cleaner he saw, his mother gave him a five dollar bill expecting a great quantity in both the coffee and cleaner. As he approached the checkout counter he could see one boy behind the register and another behind the counter on a stool with his face in an almanac. Two other boys he assumed were brothers, and were friends with the two at checkout chased each other throughout the small aisles, stopping at the counter every now and then.

"I'm Mark," The boy says as he puts the bill in the register, and bags what Tyler picked up. "You look new, I haven't seen you around here before."

And because Tyler didn't enjoy social interaction with those outside of his immediate family, he awkwardly clenched his fists and fingers down by his waist. "It's because you haven't, and I am. I'm Tyler." He replies quietly, taking the brown bag from the other boy. 

"Well do you need any help? I'm quite familiar with the town, I-I pretty much know almost everything." Tyler was half way out the door before Mark started talking to him again, it annoyed him, but his mood brightened when he saw the boy in the back roll his eyes and turn the page of his book.

"Where would you get dinner for someone who's depressed and divorced?" Tyler asks Mark, regretting his decisions right after it came out of his mouth.

"The deli 'round the corner. It's about five minutes away." The reading boy says, giving Tyler a small smile, making him mutter a small thank you and walks out of the door before Mark could say anything else.  _Thank God._


	4. Entry Four

_July 15th, 1997_

_Dad dragged us to court, again._

 

* * *

 

 "She's allowed weekend visits now?" Josh asks Kurt, passing the bowl of salad around the dinner table where his stepfather, Morgan, Reed, Mark, and himself sat. Morgan suggested to have dinner together sooner or later, and it happened to be the same night Josh's mother came home from the private hospital miles from town and in the city. 

Kurt nods, trying not to look back at his wife who'd been sleeping on the pull-out sofa for around two hours. "The nurse said she's very tired, it's been a long day for her."

"I hope she'll like my ziti, I worked very hard on it." Morgan says quietly, sparking up conversations was never one of his best suits. Josh is quick to respond before his friends or his stepfather can. "She only ate pasta at the hospital- it's the only thing there with flavor other than the coconut cake."

Since Josh's mother was declared mentally ill, he'd spend all of his summer days visiting her and making sure she was more than fine away from home. Although his mind was set on his mother, he was equally concerned that he'd end up back in his father's custody again. He was never a big fan of Kurt until summer.

Everyone in town knew of the Dun family, and their misogynistic patriarch that left every night his wife spent crying in a corner, and his son stuttering and avoiding conversation. 

But no one mentioned it. 

All of their beliefs were tied around the idea of things turning out for the better or for the worse. And some prayed. And some sat and watched. 

"Do you miss the hospital, sometimes, Josh?" Reed asks the boy across from him who pushed his pasta around his plate, and replied with a shake of his head.

 _It's the only place where my_   _father has control over me._


End file.
